We've signed a contract with the General Services Administration to sell our M54 Trailhead series at a discounted rate to customers in the federal government. Visit us at www.GSAAdvantage.gov to see how easy it is!

Maintenance Services

Did you know that Clivus can arrange to provide your facility with composting system maintenance services? Clivus offers a variety of maintenance options to meet your needs. No matter where your facility is located, we'll come to you or work with local subcontractors to ensure that the job is done right. Call us at 800-425-4887 for more information.

Greetings from Clivus Multrum!

This issue of the Natural Solution News features two recent projects. Wilson College's Fulton Center for Sustainable Living installed a Clivus M54 Trailhead in order to meet the needs of the students and community members who enjoy the farm, trails and educational programs that the Center offers. Cortland Station is a busy train station that serves commuters traveling into New York City, and a recent renovation included the addition of a Clivus composting toilet system.

Farming Without Waste at Fulton

Chris Mayer, Fulton Center Program Director, with the Center's new M54 Trailhead.*

The Fulton Center for Sustainable Living, of Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA, teaches sustainability in an environment that is ripe for hands-on learning. The Center offers learning opportunities for both students and the local community through environmental education programs, an on-site farm and CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), interpretive nature trails, and composting, recycling and renewable energy projects. Incoming freshmen spend part of their orientation on the farm, and many Wilson students continue to have direct experience with the Center through courses such as Foundations of Sustainability, Agroecology, Environmental Education, K-8 Science Methods, and Conservation Biology. The local community utilizes the Center's trails and CSA, and area children participate in field trips on the farm.

Wilson College purchased the original farm in 1974 and developed an equestrian program on half of the land in the early 1980's. In 1992, the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living was developed and the CSA born just a few years later in 1996. In the subsequent years, the Center has offered an increasing number of courses and programs that provide opportunities for students and community members to explore today's pressing environmental issues and solutions.

The Center anticipates that the Trailhead will serve 400-500 people per month from May through October.

For the past number of years, all of this was accomplished without an on-site restroom. But now, with the installation of a Clivus M54 Trailhead composting toilet system, Program Manager Chris Mayer believes the Center will be able to expand upon the opportunities the Center provides. The Center anticipates that the Trailhead will serve 400-500 people per month from May through October, including Wilson College students and the public. By providing for people's basic needs, we will be able to offer so much more, says Mayer. We are so excited to have the Clivus and have plans to include the restroom into the curriculum. In addition to the primary benefit of providing a restroom, the water-saving and pollution-prevention aspects of the Clivus were key factors that influenced the decision.

It took Mayer a number of years to find the right restroom solution for the Center and, along the way, she learned much about composting toilets. Mayer enhanced her understanding with a visit to the Tayamentasachta Center for Environmental Studies, in Greencastle, PA, where a Clivus system was installed in 1990. She was pleased to learn that the Tayamentasachta staff was happy with their Clivus, and that it, like all Clivus systems, had no smell. Her hands-on experience lent enthusiasm to her appeal to the administration, and they responded positively. Ultimately, partnerships and funding grants played a role in the purchase of the system.

Mayer made special mention of the benefit of having a Clivus representative on-site during installation saying that made it so much easier for our contractor. An issue with the fan came up during installation, and the Clivus rep was able to fix it immediately. She is also pleased with the minimal maintenance required for the Trailhead: "We contracted with a maintainer for the first year because we wanted to ensure that we got off to a good start. I'm not sure what we'll do after the first year, but the maintenance is minimal enough that it would be easy for Center staff to take that on." News of the Trailhead has spread quickly and Mayer has already received an inquiry from the Athletic Director at Wilson College, as the Clivus system may provide an alternative to the portable toilets currently in use at the athletic fields where sewer and electricity are not available.

*Image courtesy of Kristen Saacke Blunk of The Fulton Center for Sustainable Living.

Train Station Project Stays on Track: Saves Money and Goes Green

The newly renovated Metro North Cortland Station.

In February 2012, Metro North Railroad completed extensive renovations at the Cortlandt train station in Westchester County, New York. Metro North, a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, is the busiest commuter railroad in the U.S. and the Cortlandt station alone serves 1200 commuters each day. Renovations to the train station included the addition of 720 new parking spaces, construction of an overpass from the train platform to the parking lot that includes a heated waiting area, and a restroom equipped with a Clivus Multrum M35 composting toilet system with Foam-flush toilet.

Project officials knew that a traditional restroom would not be possible at the location and a restroom was not initially included in the project scope. At the request of the local Cortlandt community, Metro North re-considered the possibility of adding a public restroom, and found that the Clivus composting toilet system was an ideal solution from both a cost and environmental perspective. Connecting the train station to the town sewer would have been too expensive, and a septic system was not possible due to a combination of poor soil percolation and the station's proximity to a tributary that flows into the Hudson River. According to Karen Thomas, Director of Environmental Compliance, the benefit of using the Clivus was not having to run a sewer line to the road, which was too costly, and septic was not viable. Cost was the biggest factor in our decision, but we also thought it was a cool technology to try, and the green features fit into the overall environmental design.

The Metro North Cortlandt Station M35 Composting toilet system.

The M35 composting toilet system provides capacity for 65,000 visitors each year. The system functions by creating and maintaining an aerobic environment including bacteria, fungi, insects and compost worms. Over time, the material transforms into compost that has chemical, biological and aesthetic characteristics similar to topsoil and reduces in volume by over 90%. In addition to nutrient recycling, the Foam-flush fixture saves thousands of gallons of water compared to a traditional fixture by using only 6 ounces of water per use. The Foam-flush toilet mixes the water with a small amount of biodegradable, alcohol-based soap to create a foam blanket on the toilet bowl. In addition to the water-saving and nutrient-recycling aspects of the Clivus system, the Cortlandt station features high efficiency lighting fixtures and elevator, building materials with recycled content, and bicycle racks and prime parking for drivers of hybrid cars.

To ensure that the Clivus system was not too good to be true, project officials contacted a local facility with Clivus composting toilet systems, Rockefeller Preserve, in Tarrytown, New York. Upon the recommendation of those at Rockefeller Preserve, project officials visited the park and viewed the restrooms and witnessed the odorless environment, a necessity for the public restroom at the train station.

The restroom is accessible to the public during the day and is locked each night in order to dissuade vandalism. Maintenance is provided by Clivus Multrum, Inc. and Ray Wilk, the Administrative Manager for the company that manages the parking and concessions for the train station, says that the monthly Clivus maintenance services have worked out very well and that he has had only positive feedback from the public.

Contact Clivus Multrum to see if a Clivus composting toilet system is right for your next project.